The importance of butter and eggs was never more clear to this Southern girl than the first time I had a brownie from a box. As a 6th grader, I had my first brownie from a box served to me by a friend’s mom and my immediate reaction was, “Your brownies taste funny, my mom’s are better.” My manners may not have been top notch, but my powers to judge culinary greatness were right on target. This little moment made me immediately realize that my mom wasn’t being cheap when she insisted on making everything from scratch, she was being smart! Thanks Mom!
So, in honor of my mom, here is her recipe with a little twist of my own, a caramel filling. I made these in a 9x13" pan so I 1 1/2-ed her recipe to make the layers a little thicker to help accommodate the caramel filling.
Lynden’s Caramel Brownies:
6 Squares unsweetened chocolate (I use Bakers brand)
3 sticks of butter
6 eggs
3 cups sugar
2¼ cups flour
1½ teaspoons salt
1 Tbsp. vanilla
Caramel filling:
14 oz. bag of caramels (the kind that come individually wrapped in clear wrappers, or if you’re lucky you can find caramel bits on the baking aisle of some grocery stores… eliminates opening all those dang wrappers.)
5 oz. can of evaporated milk
Pre-heat oven to 350 and grease and flour a 9x13” baking dish. On the stove top heat the butter and chocolate together on a lower setting, be sure to keep stirring, nothing ruins brownies more than burned chocolate. In a large bowl stir together the chocolate butter mixture with the sugar and eggs. Do this by hand. If you use electric beaters it will give your brownies a fluffy cakey texture and then they aren’t rich and delicious anymore.
After those are well blended, sift the flour into this mixture, again by hand, along with the salt. It’s easiest to do this part in two or three parts. Last but not least add the vanilla (I don’t measure vanilla because I don’t think you can put too much in there) and stir.
Now, in a separate saucepan on the stove top put all of the caramels and the can of evaporated milk. Keep this heat very low and stir constantly because milk is really easy to burn. Stir until this is a smooth texture and voila, caramel sauce!
In the pan pour half of the brownie batter and make sure it covers the entire bottom of the pan. On top of that, pour in all of the caramel sauce (you will have to move the bowl around on top to make sure this layer gets a chance to spread). Then the last part is really the hardest: SLOWLY pour the last half of the brownie mix all over the top of the caramel.
Once you have completed this you not only get to lick the bowl, but you also get to put it in the oven, yay! About 30-40 minutes later they will be done! Insert a toothpick into the brownies and remove, if it's clean, or at least mostly clean that will tell you that your brownies are the perfect doneness. Let cool and cut into squares of your desired size, but remember, these are very rich. Enjoy!
